Yin Xiuzhen tells me that when her work Washing River debuted, onlookers in the southern Chinese city of Chengdu asked the artist if they could take her work home with them. Not for aesthetic reasons, mind you, but because the work consists of big blocks of ice – ice that could be used at home in the fridge.

"They wanted to use it to keep their watermelons cool or to put it in their drinks!" says the 51-year-old artist from Beijing, laughing.

Yin tells this tale to illustrate the different ways audiences around the world have reacted to her meditation on environmental pollution. Now in its fourth incarnation at the Dark Mofo festival in Hobart, Tasmania, the concept remains the same: water from a polluted river – in this case the Derwent – is frozen into 162 large bricks. Audience members are then invited to wash these ice blocks using mops and clean water as a symbolic cleansing of the river.

I shared with the artist my observation of onlookers, with one passerby who wondered out loud to his eight-year-old son why everyone was looking at a "bunch of ice". But after I outlined to him the concept of the piece he fired up about the factories and coal mines that were polluting the rivers of Tasmania. And left with a "Good on her!" hanging in the air.

It seems Yin's work touches at a raw nerve, and not only in China where rapid industrialisation has laid environmental devastation to so many parts of the country. The ceremonial act of cleansing the river taps into a universal craving to undo the damage of modern urbanisation and take on a custodian role towards nature.

"This is a problem that exists in every part of the world, although of course in some places it is much worse, and others less bad," says Yin.

China, it could be said, belongs to the former, and public discontent over water and air pollution has been growing. Yin hails from Beijing where she still lives with her husband Song Dong, another prominent Chinese artist. Each day she dresses her daughter with a face mask to protect her from the city's notorious air-pollution.

"Everyone has to breathe the air and drink the water. And these days the problem has become very serious, so every person in China is familiar with this issue," she says.

Washing River: participants get busy. Photograph: Rémi Chauvin/MONA

Even the government is paying attention, Yin adds, which may explain why, despite the work's strong social commentary, work such as hers is not considered controversial. This lies in contrast to the recent experience of the Australian-Chinese artist Guo Jian who was detained and then deported for public remarks about the Tiananmen Square protests.

Yin had not heard of Jian until coming to Australia and when I ask if she is ever fearful of recrimination because of her work, she says, "No, because my work doesn’t demand objection to anything in particular. And the Chinese government doesn't considers pollution to be a sensitive topic. If anything it is our bodies that are sensitive!"

In this respect, Yin and her husband –a power couple in the contemporary art world if ever there was one – share a similar approach. Their work reflects great currents of social change and comment on matters that spark intense discussion, without ever dictating to the viewer's moral judgments. I ask if she and Song inspire each another.

"Song Dong and I met when we were only 19 years old. Originally we were studying painting and in the same class. We knew each other for two months and then got together, back in 1986, and we’re still together today. After graduating we discovered other kinds of art such as video and sculpture."

Song is also present to participate in the piece as a photographer. His documentation of Yin's work is available to see from 20 June at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. In the meantime Yin seems happy to see the many children and adults scrubbing away at her work.

"I think here it’s unlikely I’ll have people asking if they can take the ice home with them!" she laughs.